Issue #3
October 1, 2005

Foundation Assembly

The FSFLA working group announces the upcoming organization's Foundation Assembly during the 5th Regional Days on Free Software, to take place in Rosario, Argentina, on November 20--23, 2005. At this date, the working group will have completed the organization's bylaws, and will officially elect the members of the Administration Council and the Executive Council.

Location

The working group that coordinates the creation of Free Software Foundation Latin America has decided that the organization's legal location is going to be Argentina.

Draft FSFLA structure

Administration Council (CA or Board)

The CA is FSFLA's decision-making organ. It makes all tactical and strategic decisions of the organization. Its members are all equal in terms of responsibilities and rights. The CA meets at least once a year in General Assembly, to review the previous exercise period and define future strategies. The General Assembly is the only CA official meeting, for legal purposes, but it remains in permanent open session through appropriate communication media. The CA decisions should be taken by consensus. When consensus cannot be achieved, the CA must decide by voting, in which each member has a vote.

To become a CA member, a person must be suggested by some current member and approved by unanimity. The CA-joining candidates must be well know by members through their contributions to the Foundation's workinggroups. A CA member may resign, or may lose his/her post in the CA, if two thirds of the CA vote for his/her removal. The initial FSFLA CA will be elected by the FSFLA creation working group.

Every other year, the CA elects three of its members to occupy offices in the Executive Council. In order for the election to be valid, at least 75% of the CA members must be present, or previously-authorized vote delegation must be counted on. The CE election result is determined by simple majority.

Executive Council (CE)

The CE is composed of President, Secretary and Treasurer. These offices are occupied by people who, every other year, are given their post by the CA to put forth the planned strategies. The CE members may occasionally put forth tactical decisions by themselves, to avoid unnecessary delays. But this must only occur in situations that require urgent action. When they do so, the CE members are personally responsible toward the CA for their own decisions. In cases the CA cannot reach consensus to make a decision and voting ends up in a tie, the CE can break the tie with an internal vote among its members. In these cases, every CE member has a single vote, and is in equal conditions to all others.

Working groups

They're people that, formally or informally, are linked to the organization and that have earned the organization's trust through their merit to realize actions in working groups devoted to specific tasks, under the FSFLA name. The working groups are the groups in which FSFLA's work effectively takes place. Every group has a leader, appointed by consensus in the group and approved by the CA. This leader will report directly to the CA. Each group must present regularly its work proposals to the CA, in which its mission must be detailed, as well as the way to realize it and its attributions. The CA must analyze and approve each proposal, or it may request changes until its approval is viable. Only at that point can the working group start their work under the FSFLA name. Any working group activities that are not within the bounds stipulated in a proposal approved by the CA cannot be considered an FSFLA activity.

Initial working groups

The FSFLA working group invites volunteers interested in participating in day-to-day organization activities to join the various working groups that will be created in the upcoming months.

The first working group will be that of Translators, a group that will have as a mission ensure that the documentation, releases, web site and any material produced by the FSFLA be available in at least three languages: Spanish, Portuguese and English (with a possible addition of French, if there are available translators).

People interested in contributing their work to the translators group may contact info at fsfla.org mentioning the word [Translators] in the message's subject.

Events

Federico Heinz was in Mendoza, Argentina, proffering a talk, invited by the Engineering Faculty of the University of Mendoza. The speech, entitled "Free Software and Licenses, Everything You've Always Wanted to Know but Didn't Dare Asking" took place on Friday, September 16, and was attended by students of Informatics and the general public.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation invited Enrique Chaparro and Beatriz Busaniche to participate in its forum "Information Society in Argentina: public policies and social participation". Beatriz participated of the September 28's session on "World Summit on the Information Society: from Geneva to Tunis", while Enrique will be present in October 5's panel "Electronic Government: advances and regressions in the implementation process", to take place in the Cultural Center San Martín of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. More information here.

On October 15, at 15:00, the FSFLA creation group will preset at CafeConf, the yearly event of the Free Software Users Group of the Federal Capital, Argentina. More information about CafeConf at www.cafeconf.org, and about this particular panel here.

Alexandre Oliva and Fernanda Weiden will participate in the III Free Software Meeting of Amazonas, to take place on October 13--15 in Manaus, Brazil. There, FSFLA team will meet FSF Europe's President Georg Greve. More information here.